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Cultivating Care: Lessons from a Rural Kindergarten Classroom

Cultivating Care: Lessons from a Rural Kindergarten Classroom

Author(s): Stephanie Scherer

Edition: 1

Copyright: 2025

Pages: 49

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Ebook

$65.00 USD

ISBN 9798385177509

Details Electronic Delivery EBOOK 180 days

Faculty Review Copy

Grounded in autobiographies, this classroom-based narrative inquiry focuses on understanding and making meaning of experience. This study is centered on a particular wonder: how does one rural kindergarten teacher experience and embody care in her classroom? From this question, rich and complex stories emerge—interwoven accounts of daily practices, personal beliefs, and relational moments that reveal the “lived and told” (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 20) stories of one rural Indiana teacher and her kindergarten students.

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Will You Be My Rural Neighbor?
Chapter 2: Words Matter
Chapter 3: Building Connections
Chapter 4: Giant Strength in Small Stories
Chapter 5: Teaching In Community
Chapter 6: Everything WE Need to Know...Lessons from a Kindergarten Classroom

References

Stephanie Scherer

Dr. Stephanie Scherer is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Curriculum Studies in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Director of the Rural Center for Teaching, Research, and Engagement at Purdue University. As a qualitative researcher specializing in narrative inquiry, her work concentrates on rural education, specifically preparing undergraduate students to teach in rural schools and supporting rural teachers in enhancing instructional quality and student learning. A key aspect of her research explores preservice teachers’ perceptions of place-based education and their involvement with local community organizations. For ten years, she taught Social Studies and English Language Arts to students in grades 6-12 in both rural and urban environments across Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Idaho. She resides on a farm in rural Indiana with her husband.

Grounded in autobiographies, this classroom-based narrative inquiry focuses on understanding and making meaning of experience. This study is centered on a particular wonder: how does one rural kindergarten teacher experience and embody care in her classroom? From this question, rich and complex stories emerge—interwoven accounts of daily practices, personal beliefs, and relational moments that reveal the “lived and told” (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 20) stories of one rural Indiana teacher and her kindergarten students.

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Will You Be My Rural Neighbor?
Chapter 2: Words Matter
Chapter 3: Building Connections
Chapter 4: Giant Strength in Small Stories
Chapter 5: Teaching In Community
Chapter 6: Everything WE Need to Know...Lessons from a Kindergarten Classroom

References

Stephanie Scherer
Stephanie Scherer

Dr. Stephanie Scherer is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Curriculum Studies in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Director of the Rural Center for Teaching, Research, and Engagement at Purdue University. As a qualitative researcher specializing in narrative inquiry, her work concentrates on rural education, specifically preparing undergraduate students to teach in rural schools and supporting rural teachers in enhancing instructional quality and student learning. A key aspect of her research explores preservice teachers’ perceptions of place-based education and their involvement with local community organizations. For ten years, she taught Social Studies and English Language Arts to students in grades 6-12 in both rural and urban environments across Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Idaho. She resides on a farm in rural Indiana with her husband.